Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 83: Beyond the Brisket: Creating a Liberatory Passover Practice

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As we approach Passover 5782, we’re thinking about the tension inherent in commemorating a moment of acute urgency with practices that require a lot of time, intention, and planning. The Passover story contains multiple moments when our ancestors and predecessors displayed both faith and radical imagination, but when ritual becomes rigid, it can limit beliefs and imagination. April and Tracie investigate how we can use the Passover holiday, ritual, and greater awareness, to nurture and apply our own radical imagination toward liberation.

Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 82: Showing up for justice when life gets hard (LIVE)

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This week, we’re bringing you our conversation from our live event on March 23. If we’re being real here (which we ALWAYS are), we know that many of us (especially in the Jewish community) are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and hurt by the state of the world. April and Tracie (and a couple of amazing community members!) give us some helpful framings and tips for processing and moving through our hurt, process our emotions, and get through to the other side. And spoiler alert: you don’t have to suffer in order to powerfully show up for justice!

Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 71: Tu B’Shvat and MLK Day: Deepening the Roots of Racial Justice

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As MLK Day and Tu B'Shvat overlap this coming week, April and Tracie unpack the lessons we can learn from trees and their growth in our racial justice journeys. They get into the nuances and differences between treating the symptoms of oppression and injustice – often addressed through “service” – and diagnosing and healing the root causes. And, they think about what we can do to genuinely honor Dr. King’s legacy.

Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 58: We are the Product of our Ancestor’s choices

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In this week’s episode, April shares more about her ongoing exploration around her Indigenous, Cherokee heritage and the impact a healing workshop had on her desire to live and embody this aspect of her identity. Tracie and April use this exploration to reflect on the ways in which we are the products of our ancestors’ choices to survive the oppressions they faced.

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 57: The Shmita Year, the Year of Release

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In our current pandemic-, racism-, and climate-change-ravaged times, April and Tracie talk about the Shmita Year, or Sabbatical Year, which we just began at Rosh Hashanah. How does one live out the values of the Shmita year when most of us are no longer working as farmers in the fields? They discuss how we can use this particular moment to lean into its themes, reconnect with the Earth, and find greater balance in what we endeavor to control and what we allow to happen organically.

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Reflections from April: What We Can Learn from the Sukkah This Year

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Sukkot is one of the sweetest times of year because it possesses so much wisdom. We could fill a lifetime fully unpacking, living into, and savoring the profundity and power of Sukkot’s insight! (and, that’s certainly what we are doing!).

As I mentioned in my latest conversation with Tracie, I haven’t built a sukkah of my own yet. And while I won’t likely be building nor spending time in a traditional sukkah this year 😔, I’m thinking a lot about the lessons we can take from the physicality of the Sukkot experience, especially as we’re moving forward into this shmita year of release.

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Jews Talk High Holidays 5782: Your Podcast Guide for the New Year

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If you’re looking to reflect on this past year and on how you might bravely, yet compassionately practice t’shuvah (return) and healing during the High Holidays, we’ve put together a series of podcast episodes to spur thoughts, ideas, and imagination (and, stay tuned for more episodes!). 💜🍎🍯

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Tracie’s Torah Takeaway: Parsha Shemini (Lev 9:1 - 11:47) on Intention and Impact

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This week’s portion can be a challenging one. Over the past several parshot (portions), we’ve been reading instructions about how the priests, Aaron’s sons, are supposed to treat different sacrifices offered on the altar of the mishkan, the tabernacle. In this week’s portion, we’ve moved past instructions, and we see Aaron and his sons actually slaughter the calf of sin offering, mark the horns of the altar with its blood, and turn the appropriate bits into smoke upon the altar. We see this happen with Aaron’s sin offering, with the people’s sin offering, and with the people’s offering of well-being. These animal sacrifices happen again and again, pretty much the way we read it was supposed to, with oft-repeated phrases that turn a vegetarian’s stomach, like “the protruberance of the liver.” To be honest, it’s tough for me to to pay close attention or to distinguish between this portion and earlier ones describing sacrifices.

And then something curious happens.

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - S2E11: Transition, Trajectory, and Trellises

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April and Tracie explore the ways the messiness of spring contributes to its beauty and potential. The also notice how structure--whether the practice of counting the Omer, a vine's trellis or their online course Awareness Accelerator--can support the important and messy work of growth.

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